This is one Indo-Pak story without cricket bats, without border maps. It’s about two of the poorest localities in two economic capitals on either side — one inspiring the other.

And if an official Sindh agency’s proposal finally reaches the government’s drawing board, thousands of Karachi’s poorest residents may benefit from a Mumbai project that aims to transform the way the world sees Asia’s largest slum settlement, Dharavi.

Prepared by the Sindh Katchi Abadi Authority (SKAA), the Karachi plan involves a pilot project to relocate slumdwellers in highrise apartment blocks in a self-financing project on the lines of the proposed redevelopment of Dharavi.

“Yes, we have been inspired by what we are reading on the Internet about the Dharavi slum redevelopment project,” Director General of the SKAA, Ali Ahmed Lund told The Sunday Express from Karachi. “We believe slum rehabilitation in Mumbai was not entirely successful. Kuch daraare pad gayee hain (Some cracks have appeared). But we will improve upon that, for we believe the idea is a good one.”

According to him, two katchi abadis — literally, unorganised population or unorganised colonies — have been picked for the experiment, the Shah Rasool Colony in Clifton and Essa Goth in Nazimabad. “If it is successful, we can replicate the project,” said Lund. “We are just starting with these two colonies, one is 12 acres, the other 18 acres.”

The Rs 9,000-crore Dharavi Redevelopment Project, seeking to turn 355 acres of slum land into a township, may be larger in terms of project size and cost, but there are similarities: both will apply a tendering system to pick developers, both are prestigious projects hoping to set the bar high for future slum redevelopment.

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